SAFE-INJECTION SITE STEERS DRUG USERS TO TREATMENT

Drug addicts who visit Vancouver's safe-injection site are more
likely to enter detox programs, more likely to start methadone
therapy and reduce their number of monthly visits to the facility, a
new study reports.

One of the authors, leading AIDS researcher Dr. Julio Montaner, said
the study provides clear evidence the facility is steering some
injection drug users toward treatment for their addictions, with a
30-per-cent increase in detox enrolments among Insite users in the
year after the site opened.

He said it also furnishes the federal government with the proof it
asked for last August when it deferred a decision on extending
Insite's licence on the grounds there wasn't enough evidence it was
meeting its goals.

At the time, Health Minister Tony Clement said the government
believed breaking the cycle of dependency should be the primary goal
of a harm-reduction program like Insite.

But Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS
and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said he
doesn't expect the governing Conservatives to be satisfied now that
there is evidence Insite is playing that role for some of the people
who use it.

"The difficulty is that whatever we say, if you don't really like
this [program], if you hate it -- whether it's because of your
preconceived notions, moral objections, religious issues, whatever .
. . the goal post is going to be moved to something else," he said.

The study, published in the journal Addiction, is the latest in a
string of 28 or so scientific publications that have found the
facility has had a positive impact on the addicts who inject there
and the community in which it is located, Vancouver's troubled
Downtown Eastside.

Earlier studies have been published in such prestigious publications
as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet.

But the Conservatives continue to argue that there isn't enough
evidence on the efficacy of the program.

Health Canada recently issued a call asking Canada's
addiction-research community to submit proposals for studies looking
into the facility's impact on public order and safety, on the risk
behaviour of users and other issues.

The projects, which would be funded to the tune of $260,000 in total,
must be completed and submitted to the department by the end of October.